Saturday (July 26) evening came with a biting cold breeze as it drizzled in Gulu, but the open room at the Taks Art Centre Gulu, the venue for a movie premier, was filled with cajoling couples and other revelers rubbing their shoulders and hands to gain some warmth.

As the events neared commencement, a beehive of activities surrounded the place with glamorous white ushers welcoming guests, smiling art painters putting finishing touches to their art pieces and face painters decorating revellers as mind soothing music mildly caressed the airwaves.By 8pm, the place had a moderately full house audience of both residents and Diasporas enthusiastically waiting to catch a glimpse of the much anticipated Gulu’s first HD movie premier of Crying For Help.

About the movieThe movie’s scary beginning sent the audience in silence and buzz, as Anena, an orphaned girl with her friend Akot, wailed in pain as they were raped on their way to the well by a group of notorious drug addicts. Due to fear of being hurt and other reprisals that would arise from the outlaws and the community, Anena decided to hide the information from her guardians but throughout the movie, she lives a depressed life until she gets the courage to inform the police.

The movie’s contents and features shed a light on what is happening in the region where young girls are defiled and raped but do not report to the relevant authorities so as to get justice for the fear of reprisals. It is one movie that makes one leave a cinema hall with one thing on the mind, advocate for stringent laws against rapists and defilers.

Inspiration for the movieDaniel Komakech, the movie’s director, said they developed the movie out of the high rape and defilement cases in the region. “As youth in the region, we thought of creating something that will cause change in our region and also depict to the world how defilement and rape has become a menace to the young girls, coupled with the injustices they face after the act,” Komakech said. He added: “We also wanted to teach the youth in schools within the region the dangers of drugs.”

Lindah Ozramano, the programme leader at United Youth Entertainment (the organisation behind the movie), expressed her gratitude to the youthful actors who have made the movie a success, adding that another movie of the kind is in production.Pato Loverboy, one of Gulu’s sensational music artistes wrapped up the night’s events at 11pm with an energetic performance of his latest songs.